The Road to Happily Ever After
by Misha
Summary: The road to happily ever after was a bumpy one with many twists and turns, but in the end it lead her back to him.


The Road to Happily Ever After  
By Misha

Disclaimer- I don't own "Gossip Girl", though I wish I did. But it belongs to people with more money than me. I'm not making any money off this, so please don't sue.

Author's Notes- I wrote this during a particularly boring Politics class. It's a Blair piece in five parts, each part having two sections. I don't know where the idea came from, but I liked it and decided to run with it. Each part is 300 words, give or a take a word. That was a challenge to me, setting a word limit and trying to stick to it. That's all for now, enjoy!

Pairing- Blair/Chuck, some Blair/Carter, Blair/Dan, and Blair/Nate.

Summery- The road to happily ever after was a bumpy one with many twists and turns, but in the end it lead her back to him.

Rating- Pg-13

Spoilers- First season and vague spoilers for the second season.

* * *

I. First Comes Love, Then Marriage

Blair gets married the day after she graduates high school.

It's not the big, flashy wedding she always imagined, but she thinks it terribly romantic to run off and elope at eighteen. She figures they can always have a big wedding later to please her mother, but this one is just for them. She and Chuck have had a rough year, but they stuck together and became stronger because of it.

Plus, they're young and in love and Blair likes the fact that Chuck **needs** her and that's why she says yes when Chuck asks her, even though it comes out of the blue. Then before, she had a chance to really think about what she's doing, they've grabbed Serena and Nate and made the hasty trip to Las Vegas in the Bass jet.

Within twenty-four hours, she's Mrs. Chuck Bass. Blair knows it's crazy, but she also thinks it's perfect.

* * *

Blair thinks it's less perfect three months later when she files for divorce the day before she leaves for Yale.

She and Chuck managed a month before things started getting sour and by the time Blair heads off to college, it's officially over.

Really they were too young for such a commitment, plus they were Chuck and Blair, they weren't meant for happily ever afters.

Six weeks after the hasty elopement in Vegas, Blair moves back in with her mother and Chuck starts ëentertaining' random women in his suite again. They avoid each other and at her mother's urging Blair files for divorce.

She gets no acknowledgement from Chuck, even though secretly she'd hoped he'd protest, but she knew he wouldn't. They both know it's over.

Eleanor's just happy to have Blair's little "mistake" out of the way, but for Blair it feels like the end of a dream.

* * *

II. The Society Bride

Blair marries for the second time the fall after she graduates from Yale, a month before her twenty-third birthday.

This time, she has the big society wedding, with seven hundred guests and Eleanor managing every detail. She's thrilled, of course, and acts like this is Blair's first marriage. She prefers to pretend that Blair's "youthful mistake" never happened and Blair lets her. It's just easier that way.

Blair's not really sure how she ended up marrying Carter Baizen, but he's attractive, charming and he'll make her a good husband, even if she'll never love him the way she loved Chuck. But that's okay, because Blair never wants to love like that ever again.

She and Carter have an arrangement, an agreement that suits them both, and Blair knows that they'll have a successful society marriage and that's enough for her.

She doesn't need passion, not anymore.

* * *

Blair's plans go awry when she's widowed six days after her twenty-sixth birthday.

Carter's on his way to work when another car runs a red light and blind sides him and that's it. Their daughter Audrey is thirteen months old.

As Blair dresses Audrey for Carter's funeral, she can't help but think that Audrey will never know her father and that's a shame because Carter adored his daughter.

For all his faults in his youth, Carter was a good husband and a wonderful father. Blair might not have been **in** love with him, but she had loved him dearly and the tears she cried at his funeral were genuine.

It hits her as she exits the church, that she has no idea what she's going to do with the rest of her life. She had a plan, but without Carter, the plan doesn't work and she has no idea what comes next.

* * *

III. A Whirlwind Paris Romance

Blair's twenty-seven when she marries Dan Humphrey in Paris.

It's an impulsive decision and even as she's standing at the officiant's office being married, she knows they'll both regret it.

They ran into each other by accident in a Paris cafe and shared a surprisingly enjoyable lunch and then somehow ended up in bed together that night.

Blair's a little surprised with herself, since this first time she's had sex since Carter's death, but as much as she misses Carter, she still has needs.

The grown-up Dan Humphrey is an attractive man, plus he's her intellectual equal and Blair always found a good verbal sparring match incredibly attractive. Six weeks later, after another round of hot sex, they decide to get married.

The idea of a passionate whirlwind marriage in Paris appeals to Blair, even though she knows rationally it's a mistake. But she does it anyway, partially because it's the craziest thing she's done since she married Chuck and she misses being crazy.

* * *

The marriage lasts twenty-months and the only reason it lasts that long is Truman Howard Humphrey.

Blair finds it strange that she'll be tied to Dan Humphrey for the rest of her life, but she doesn't mind the idea as much as she once would have.

The marriage ends mainly because they've never had much in common besides great sex and a mutual love of a good verbal spar. The sex wore itself out and they decide they can always spar just as well as exes.

Honestly, she's still too Upper East Side for him and he's too Brooklyn for her. They part amicably and Blair doesn't regret her crazy impulse, because it helped break her out of her funk and bring back to life again. Something she needed after losing Carter.

* * *

IV. For As Long As We Both Shall Live

Blair's fourth wedding takes place in the Winter following her thirty-first birthday.

She's a little stunned at how many husbands she's had, but she always did consider Lily more of a role model than her own mother. Besides, this marriage is different than her other three.

This time she's not motivated by passion, convenience or impulse, but by compassion. Nate is dying and Blair agrees to marry him to give him a child, but also to just be there for him at the end.

This isn't his first marriage either, like her, his first marriage was a love match that ended badly. He asks her to marry him, because he doesn't want to be alone and she agrees because it's the only thing she can do for him.

She's content with her choice. She's not in love with Nate, hasn't been in years, but she's always loved him dearly and he needs her. She's always enjoyed being needed.

Besides, when he asked her, she figured that she'd done it three times already, what was one more?

* * *

Blair is widowed for the second time at thirty-two, a mere eighteen months after the wedding.

Tristan Nathaniel Archibald is six months old--Blair thought it was appropriate to name her son the name she picked out so long ago for her and Nate's first son.

Tristan brings Nate so much joy at the end and Blair is so happy that she made the decision to marry Nate. She's with him when he passes, so are Chuck and Serena.

Afterwards, Blair sobs in Chuck's arms, hating how right it feels to be there. Still, she can't hate him, not anymore, not when they've just lost Nate, and not when, deep down, she's never stopped loving him.

* * *

V. First, Last, Always

Blair's fifth, and hopefully final, marriage takes place at Christmastime when she's thirty-four, a year and a half after Nate's death.

This one is a big, joyful affair, though not a huge social event like her wedding to Carter, but a true celebration.

She and Chuck have come so far since their hurried elopement fifteen years previously and Blair knows that this time it's forever.

She's had three other husbands, all of whom she's cared for, but not one of them could take Chuck's place in her heart.

Still, Blair doesn't regret their years apart, because she knows they needed them to truly appreciate what they have together.

As she dances with her husband, Blair feels more complete than she has in years. Chuck is her soul mate, she's ready to accept that now and to live happily ever after.

* * *

Blair is widowed for the third and final time at eighty-six.

Chuck has died peacefully in his sleep and Blair fills like half of her went with him. They had a great life together, two beautiful children to go with the three she already had and fifty years of wonderful memories.

Chuck Bass was Blair's first husband and he was also her last. By this time, the memories of her other three husbands have faded--Carter and Nate long dead and even Dan's been gone for twenty years.

Blair might have married other men, even loved them in her way, but it was Chuck who fate lead her back to and it's Chuck who made her life worth living.

Blair returns home after Chuck's funeral and can't help but smile as she remembers the life she lived and the love she experienced.

It was a long, crazy road, but Blair Waldorf-Bass found her happily ever after and she doesn't regret a single moment of it.

- End


End file.
